Character Cleanup & Revision

So after working out designs for our characters, Stephen Silver had us work on finalizing one and cleaning it up.

I've done very little brush-based inking so this was a challenge. I was able to do a passable job in Photoshop but I really do need to practice my analog inking.

As you can see, my first cleanup pass was pretty straight-forward on the pencils. But Stephen suggested a few tweaks to the head which you can see on the 2nd cleanup drawing on the right. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the result, especially given that this is the first time I've worked out a character to such a level.

If you get a chance to take Stephen's character design course, try to go for the video feedback option if you have the funds. The payoff is well worth it.

Next up: turn-arounds and expressions.

Building Character

 I don't think I'm alone when I say that my path as an illustrator has been heavily influenced not only by illustrators of the past and present but also animated movies and television shows. I grew up in the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons–The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show; Scooby Doo; The Jetsons; The Superfriends; Robotech. And every Saturday morning kicked off several hours of tense stand-off with my mom as she maniacally enforced a weekly cleaning schedule that saw me shouldering the heavy burden of cleaning the bathrooms and dusting everything. I wasn't very subtle in my attempts to sneak in cartoon watching as I worked. And by working I mean sitting on the couch, remote in-hand. Parents never understood the need for cartoons.

Anyway, one of the legacies of this horribly stress-filled childhood has been a desire to eventually include character design for animation as part of my path as an illustrator. One of the steps I've recently taken toward that goal has been to enroll in Stephen Silver's Character Design course hosted on Bobby Chiu's Schoolism site. I'm currently in the midst of Week 6 of the course and I'm being challenged and learning TONS!

One of the biggest things I've learned is the importance of pushing past your first several designs until you break out of the self-imposed limitations of initial ideas. Given the limited schedule of most illustration projects, I generally tend to rely on my first few ideas so I can get on with meeting the deadlines. I've always known the importance of pushing ideas but I've also fallen victim to the need for speed and the tyranny the modern production schedule. Stephen's class has changed that.

I'm in week 6 of classes and one of the assignments is working out designs for a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project. We were to come up with a twist on the standard dual-personality idea and come up with the look of our characters. My idea is set in the 1920's and Dr. Jekyll is an Oxford professor and Hyde is a self-styled adventurer type with delusions of grandeur.

Normally, my first inclination is to stop after doing only about four or five variations and then moving on. But pushing past my first ideas reulted in ideas that started moving away from my general solution patterns.

This has brought home the importance of idea exploration and the possibilities found in taking a little more time, allowing ideas to ferment and develop in ways that may suprise.

I can't recommend Stephen's class enough to anyone wanting to push their ideas further. He's an amazingly talented guy and he's developed a short course that will push you're creativity.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Character Designs

I've been so busy with client work that I've had little time to devote to my personal project, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

I've been able to squeeze in time between bill-paying projects to finalize the look of four of the primary characters: Ichabod, Katrina, Baltus and Brom Bones.

Thought I would share.

Update on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:56AM by Gerald Kelley

UPDATE: I finished off color roughs.

I'm excited about how things are looking so far. Researching clothing styles from the late 18th century has been interesting and it's helped me get past the generic look of some of my earlier sketches and character designs.

Enjoy! 

Update on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 10:34AM by Gerald Kelley

UPDATE 2: I got so caught up in making sure I was drawing fairly accurate costumes that I completely forgot about one of the defining characteristics of Ichabod Crane: his clothes were ill-fitting and his arms were too long for his sleeves.

What kills me is I've read this story dozens of times over the years and I still overlooked that detail. Just reinforces that details are important but only if you keep in mind how they serve the purpose of the character description.

This oversight was caught by a former high school classmate of mine. Thanks, Erick!

My First Ustream Test

This week I've been checking out Ustream and the possibility of broadcasting a regular artcast. I'm not sure how often it will be, maybe only once a week to start off and I'm not even sure when it will be either.

I set everything up to test out the video feed and the audio. So far Ustream Producer has been functioning the way they promise. I did a short test broadcast this evening and I even had an audience to help me with audio issues. Thanks, Manola and Casey!

What started out as a random, throwaway sketch done for the sole purpose of testing the feed turned into a fun little character design. I kind like how she came out.

Project: Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Since I was a kid, I've been fond of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' (LoSH). When I was in elementary school (circa 1980), we were shown a made-for-television version of the story starring Jeff Goldblum and Dick Butkus(!). It's actually on YouTube! I don't remember much of the details of the film itself but afterward I remember specifically drawing the headless horseman in class (I wish I had kept that thing...). Anyway, that film is responsible for sparking an interest in the story that's stuck with me through the years.

I've been wanting to work on my own version of the story for a long time. Presenting it as a long-form story book with the actual text relatively intact. I love the idea of presenting classic and traditional stories as originally written, rather than editing them down for simplicity's sake or to accommodate current sensibilities. Of course, that will have to thought out as I go forward but it's the initial idea. The format I am thinking is something like a hybrid of a current story book and the old-style children's books of the past with tipped-in color plates, like old Arthur Rackham illustrated books. A combination of spot illustrations, full-pages and spreads, full-color and black and white.

At this point, I'm ignoring all the previous half-hearted attempts I've made in the past, (here and here) and I'm moving forward with a clean slate. I will be posting character design sketches, environment ideas, thumbnails and such. I may also post thumbnails of layout and text treatment.

So this marks the jumping off point for the project: Ichabod Crane.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Katrina & Brom

Designs for Katrina Van Tassel and Brom Bones.

The more I think and design on this project, the more I realize this will entail a different feel than my usual illustration style. Not sure if it will have more of a hand-drawn feel or not. Regardless it will certainly call for a greater level of detail work.

Project: Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Ichabod Crane

One of my all-time favorite stories is Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read it every year when Autumn is getting closer. I read it a little early this year. So sue me.

This is a project I've thought about for a few years but I've never committed myself to anything until now. SO I figure the best way to begin is with the character designs and work out from there. And the best place to start is Ichabod himself.

Here's how Irving describes our "hero":

In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a native of Connecticut, a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and country schoolmasters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

So there ya go! I have to say one of the hardest things I've discovered about trying to get him to look right is that nose! I've never really had to draw a long nose from the front before. Getting it to look like there's a bit of length to it when you have it straight on is a bit of a challenge.

Keep your eyes peeled for more sketchbook postings!

BTW: If you want to hear a really good reading of the unabridged story, check out B.J. Harrison's rendition on iTunes.